Its…. alive!

So, I didn’t post on the weekend. I would have written an amused story about that fact that this country has a strange way of conducting its polling in a national election – which includes advertising right up until the booth. Truly bizarre. Anyway. Kevin07! Don’t you dare muck up now – we’re counting on you!

And back to reality. I’m 10 days out from a Thesis Proposal Review/Annual Plan/Annual Report deadline. Why all three have to be in on the same day – God alone knows. But it does means I’ve have very little time to do anything else – especially since our landlords decided to put the house on the market the day after the rate rise. No, we’re not getting kicked out (yet, we’ll see what happens with the rent increase next year) – the joys of a fixed tenancy agreement, but it does mean open homes for all the investors eagerly awaiting to snatch a bit of prime real estate in a buyer’s market. And they Magpie will be away on fieldwork and with his family, so I get the brunt of the hiding the silver and making sure it all looks neat. Not all that impressed with everything at the moment on that front.

Since the last time I blogged – it took a week for my feet to recover from Sydney, and they still complain whenever I wear jandals (Aussies = thongs). The TPR paper began in earnest, and I was suddenly swamped with workshops out of nowhere, the last of which I have tomorrow on how to write a lit review. I’m not even going to talk about how redundant I’m finding it. The first workshop fell on my birthday, so it really was a non-event. Instead, I had a Sunday morning tea at the Hyatt with 6 friends, and that was all quite nice. Nothing of the yarn or knitting variety came my way however, and I think I’m going to need to start educating the Magpie on the merits of building up a nice stash (in other words: buy me nice wool… dammit!)

In amongst the boring workshops and panicked and/or frenzied attempts to finish a 5000 word (coherent) paper in less than 2 months, I went down to Melbourne to suffer through 38 degree swelters to teach what seemed like a fairly pointless workshop to people squabbling through politics with their academic library, and didn’t really even have the knowledge to be doing the course anyway. But, it was a day in air conditioning, so they didn’t mind, and it was time away from my thesis which left me wondering what on earth I was trying to prove. When middle-aged women start passing notes in the front of your much laboured over presentation, you’d be asking yourself that question too. Anyway, that’s CAVAL for the year. I don’t quite know how I’m going to fit everything in next year. I’m still grouchy at not being able to knit on the plane. With the amount of time I’m going to be in the air, I deserve some quality knitting time.

Speaking of the knitting, the Tiger Eye Scarf came out beautifully in cotton – such an easy pattern to knit too. I think I’ll find a nice wool and attempt it again in that – because while the cotton drapes beautifully, it doesn’t have the stretch to pull some of the 3togs together, and that makes the eyes somewhat uneven, but I am smitten with Jo Sharp’s Soho Summer DK Cotton. It’s just beautiful! I also finished the Vine Stitch Scarf, which is just magnificent in that cotton – I’m blocking it now, but words cannot describe how happy I am with this pattern. Another simple 1 row scarf, this one will look just as good in angora or chunky knit wool as it will in the cotton, and I will be making myself one next year. The sidebar shows my holiday projects – yet another Fibonacci beanie – this one to go to a professor of Computer Science at the University of Georgia, and my very own Clapotis. The wool has been packed, and the clothes WILL be packed to accommodate it. My poor Baudelaire has been left languishing with 5 repeats to go on the first sock due to the Christmas rush. It is a very easy knit, but I still need to get that beanie out of the way (it will be a belated present, I know). Yet, I shall soldier ahead – as long as I have a pair of socks before next winter, I will be very happy.

But for the next few days, I’m not allowed to touch any knitting (unless it is my Baudelaire) because I need to get the house in order, and the Reports and Plans finished.

But I have returned! Now I just need to catch up on my blogreel… (and will post photos soon)